Anthony Blinken considered Yahya Sinwar’s death a great opportunity” to end the war in the Gaza Strip, even as Israel continues to bomb the region and Lebanon.
The American Secretary of State, visiting Jerusalemalso pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take “additional measures” to bring humanitarian aid to civilians.
Last night, at least seven Israeli bombings took place in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which have been abandoned by most of its residents, a month after the war spread to Lebanon, where the death toll has now exceeded 1,500. During the day, several bombings had already occurred in these neighborhoods, including one that destroyed an 11-story apartment building.
The US Secretary of State, on his eleventh trip to the Middle East since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, said that Yahya Sinwar’s death offers “a great opportunity for the hostages to return home” and “end the war ” in the enclave, during his meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Netanyahu told his interlocutor, according to his services, that the death of the Hamas leader “could have a positive effect” regarding the “return of hostages” still held in Gaza.
Israel “confirmed” his death last night Hashem Safieddinwho was reportedly preparing to succeed his cousin Hassan Nasrallah as leader of Hezbollah after the movement’s secretary-general was killed in an Israeli airstrike on September 27.
Blinken, who is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia today, hopes to avoid a military escalation between Israel and Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollahfollowing the Iranian missile attack on Israeli territory on October 1. However, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad told the American diplomat that his country had Washington’s support “after attacking Iran”, according to his services.
Hezbollah announced yesterday that it launched drones at a military base near Haifa, in northern Israel, and destroyed seven Israeli tanks on the border, where fighting continues. Israel, for its part, continued intensive bombing in several areas of Lebanon, killing at least ten people, according to Lebanese authorities, in the eastern and southern parts of the country.
18 dead near a hospital
A bombing yesterday killed 18 people, authorities said, near the Rafik Hariri hospital, the country’s largest public health facility, in the Jna district, a short distance from the southern suburbs but not in any of Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds. Children played outside and “when the first rocket fell, and then the next one, I saw them being blown to pieces,” said Ola Fahid Eid, an actress who lives in the neighborhood. At the site of the bombing, among pieces of buildings, an AFP photojournalist yesterday saw rescue teams searching through the wreckage, at a point where a cell phone could be heard ringing below them.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk expressed “disgust” and demanded a “swift and thorough investigation”.
Washington assured yesterday, Monday, that it is working to end the war “as quickly as possible”, based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), which refers to the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah and provided that the non-state armed organizations should withdraw from southern Lebanon, where — at least in theory — only the peacekeepers and elements of the Lebanese army can be deployed.
On Sunday and Monday, the Israeli military appeared to expand its attacks, targeting Hezbollah’s financial system, bombing offices of the al-Qard al-Hassan credit organization, part of the Shiite movement’s system.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the Israeli army announced the death in Syria of a senior official of the Shiite movement, who it said was responsible for “Hezbollah fund transfers”, at the same time that it claimed to have reached an underground shelter containing what it said was of “tens of millions of dollars”.
In the Gaza StripThe Israeli army has since October 6 continued its deadly new offensive against Hamas elements in the north, which has forced thousands of people to flee.
In Jabalia, where the Israeli army issued a new order to hastily evacuate civilians, “numerous men” were detained, rescuer Nevin al-Dawasha, who fled to Gaza city after “16 days”, told AFP.
Sources: APE-MPE, AFP